The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
It is known that hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis, or skin. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The defining care of hair involves hair growth, hair types, and hair care. Hair has great social significance for human beings. The highly visible differences between male and female body and facial hair are a notable secondary sex characteristic.
Typically, a hairstyle refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human scalp. Sometimes, this could also mean an editing of beard hair. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.
Curling and straightening hair requires use of a curling rod or a flat iron to get a desired look. These irons use heat to manipulate the hair into a variety of waves, curls and reversing natural curls and temporarily straightening the hair. However, straightening or even curling hair can damage it due to direct heat from the iron and applying chemicals afterwards to keep its shape.
It is also known that many individuals with long hair prefer to have their hair off of their face when doing certain activities. However, current methods for putting the hair up have limitations and drawbacks. Elastic bands and clips often damage the hair and pull at the user's scalp. Removing them can cause hair to tangle and rip it out at the root. These items also have a tendency to slip out of the hair, which is frustrating. In addition, individuals who like curls in their hair have to spend a good deal of time with hot curling irons or hot rollers in order to obtain the desired look.
Generally, self-engaging curlers are designed to maintain hair rolled thereon in a tightly fixed roll without need for pins, clips, or elastic bands. Unfortunately, curlers of this type have the disadvantage that the number of gripping elements required for effective self-engagement also have the cumulative effect of holding the hair too tightly so that removal of the curler is often difficult and accompanied by painful tearing of the hair.
Other proposals have involved hair restraining and curling devices. The problem with these hair styling devices is that they do not provide slots for the strands of hair to pass through. Also, they do not have folding end caps that hold the curled hair in place. Also, they do not work with an elastic band to further restrain the hair in the desired curl intensity. Even though the above cited hair restraining and curling devices meet some of the needs of the market, a pliable assembly and method for restraining and curling hair that enables easy rolling of strands of hair about an elongated panel and then folding a pair of annular members about the ends of the elongated panel to restrain and curl the hair, and further, an elastic retaining band that extends between the annular members and intermeshes with the notches in the annular members, so as to securely retain the annular members in the folded arrangement around the strands of curled hair is still desired.